What do you do? C&R or Catch & Keep?

[Sandman]

I only keep walleye and perch. I return most of the perch I catch and it depends on where I catch the walleye if I keep them or not. Lake Erie walleye taste great when prepared properly, even the bigguns. I may start keeping a few bass as I hear they make great fertilizer.

eyedoktr, you haven't changed since I fished with you years back! I find the salmon keep the wifes rose bushes blooming!
Anyway, I release all muskies in the 1000 Islands, all largemouths, keep one or two opening day smallies to eat that night and release the rest. An occassional cold water northern pike which filleted boneless taste great. Perch over 14 inches are always returned. Only walleye caught after my limit is in the ice chest find there way back to safety. Most everything else is released as once a meal is taken I go barbless hooks. Pete, you'll have to make my annual spring and summer fish fry. We catch quite a few cold ones from the ice tubs and you my old friend know the place we release them.

[eyedoktr]

Larry (sandman) let me know when and if I'm not at a walleye tourney, I'll try to come and bring some extra fish.

[Sandman]

Great, I have two so I hope you can make one or both. I know you can afford to donate a few 'eye fillets the way you can always catch them.
I'll have plain old yellow perch (mmmmm) from Seneca and here at Braddock's. It's a good time. You'll see a few familiar faces from the past.

[Browntrout08]

Both.  Most of the time I will keep trout over 9 inches, about 8 a year.  When I'm icefishing, I keep everything of decent size.  I would say 85% of my fish I keep are through the ice.  I release all of my bass but this year I might try some smallies out of Erie.  I don't walleye fish but if I caught one, I definetly would keep it.  Perch and walleye are my favorites.

[ice1or2]

'bout 95% released, occasionally keep craps or gills, maybe 2or3  eyes a year. Really don't like fish to much. Small fillets with equal amount of beer batter & hot sauce are o.k. as long as there is some beer left over! If I had to fish to survive I'd probally troll an ear of corn through a cow pasture!

[Bushman]

I love to eat walleye, but now all I take home are a few of the small ones. all the big ones go back

[mike692]

Keep mostly gills and perch, a few crappie. Maybe a couple pike and bass a year. Keep a good many pickeral as well. I also keep a few trout.(Stockies)
I'd say of all of the fish I catch I keep about 40%. They don't go to waste.

[Coldfeet]

I don't fish as much as I used to and I do release fish but not all maybe around 50% Trout(steelhead) go home to the smoker when I want them. Northerns Make a great gumbo or great just fried. Panfish never get away if their big enough. Walleye are released in  grease. My family loves fish and would eat it 4 times a week if we could. My feeling is if it doesn't go to waste then take them home with you.
ColdFeet

[howey1176]

I keep everything worth keeping and cleaning, within the law. Like to keep my freezer stocked.

We eat a lot of fish at my house. At least one, sometimes two dinners a week.

[suskymusky]

I mostly C&R, but I keep some trout,walleye and panfish and occasionally a few bass .I put back all my Channel cats and Musky, but I'd like to get a 50"er for the wall.I bowfish for carp when they spawn, but when I get one on a rod they go back,too.

[reubenpa]

I love eating fish, so if they are big enough and in the legal limits, I keep them, but understand people's reasons for c&r.  When I start getting more of the bigger fish, I will start releasing them to, but now I don't get many bass as I don't have a boat, so I keep what I do get that are legal, but I throw back alllllll STOCKED trout, they are disgusting.  I have only caught one legal Pike, but I will start releasing some now that I have gotten some

[vancouvercanuck]

I'll keep what i'm going to eat that night, other than that, everything goes back.

[icehole69]

I release everything I catch , but I feel like if a person has a FISHING LICENSE and catches a fish thats of legal size It is their business to keep it

[MickeyFinn]

I have a neat story,In the 20+ years I have been fishing I have kept 5 fish..It drove my grandfather nuts!!!He loved to eat Brown Trout,(don't ask me why) All the way up until he caught the biggest friggin Brown Trout we had ever seen come out our favorite local stream, 261/2 inches and football shaped doesn't come close to describing how fat this thing was.. Except for undersized fish it was the first big fish I had ever witnessed him release and from that day on he never kept another fish...

[TroutFishingBear]

I keep my daily limit of walleyes (3 or 4 depending on the lake) and I will keep a few panfish. I keep maybe 6-12 rainbows or browns a year that are 8 pounds plus to smoke. I caught a 14 pound brown that I smoked.

Oh yeah, I forgot, I like to keep about 1-2 catfish every time.

But, most of the time, I catch and realease.